Media Archive

Othello director Bill Rauch recently sat down with Shakespeare expert and John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities Stephen Greenblatt for a conversation about the Bard’s resonance with modern viewers, the importance of a diverse cast, the music in the language of the play, and more.

“I wrote this play thinking it was going to be the last play I’d write. I was going to quit being a playwright. I was in a place where I was feeling like, “I don’t know if this is the life for me.”…So when Diane Borger [A.R.T.’s executive producer] told me that she would like to take a risk on this play, I think that really brought back whatever faith I had in theater.”

While racism has always been the cornerstone of “Othello,” [actor Chris] Butler says, in the age of the #MeToo movement, the unfair treatment of Desdemona becomes all the more glaring.”

“The longer I am away from an audience, the more insane I feel. I need to come back to the stage in order to maintain my spiritual health.”